


Split-Level Head

by DaniPhandom



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2020-06-01
Packaged: 2020-09-07 21:50:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20316556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaniPhandom/pseuds/DaniPhandom
Summary: “”Hold on, Danny!” Three little words. One inauspicious action. Little did Sam Manson know, her effort to save her friend’s life would change both their lives, and the lives of those around them, forever- entwining forms, fates, and even destinies- as they face the realities of living in a split level head.”





	1. Within You

**Author's Note:**

> While this story is largely framed as a canonical divergence, with in the confines of the story I am attempting to address the canon in a way that elevates the content, with reflections on serious themes and attempts to give nuance to ideas the original might not have put as much into and as such, artistic license will occasionally be taken rather than granular attention to the canonical details- for instance, a more nuanced portrayal of Sam’s vegetarianism with relation to her cultural and religious identity through the lens of a fuller understanding of the issues at hand.

The Fenton Lab. 

They shouldn’t be down there. Danny knew that much. But when he’d mentioned what his family had been working on, the enthusiasm from both his friends had been a nearly irresistible force. Tucker was intrigued and Sam- Well, Sam might well have looked as though you told her the President had signed an executive order outlawing the industrial farming industry. And so he’d let his friends talk him into taking them down into the lab where his parents- from what they’d mentioned last night- had built a gateway into an unexplored ghost dimension, it just didn’t quite work on the first test.

“So this is it?” Tucker asked, curious, admiring the enormous gateway in the Fentons’ basement. It was impressive. Clearly the wall around it had been built to accommodate it rather than the other way around- intricate networks of gauges and other equipment latticed the wall around the metallic octagon- the beta Fenton Ghost Zone Portal.  
“Yep, that’s it. The thing mom and dad say _ should _ have opened a portal right on through to the other side,” Danny replied, opening a lab closet to pull out a white jumpsuit trimmed in black. “It didn’t work, so they’re taking a bit to themselves before they look again. Something about fresh eyes after a couple of days.”

Sam let out an audible sigh in awe. “A ghost zone. Think about that, I wonder how much cool stuff would be there? Maybe it’s even like a dark, goth mirror to our world. Would it even abide by our _ physics? _Who knows..”

She ran a hand down a side of the portal. “Almost wanna try it myself.”

“Too bad Jazz’s suit was too big,” Danny chuckled, zipping up the jumpsuit

“Psssh,” Sam replied, with a turn of her head, before looking him up and down. “Looking sharp. Ready to step one foot into the other side?”

Danny flashed her a grin, “Ready as I can be. Give the knob a twist, let’s see if I can be the first to explore it.”

Sam nodded, turning the knob and the gate began to buzz into life but… stopped. 

“Huh.” Danny took a couple steps in, before noticing a blinking indicator under a red button. 

“Hey, I think I found the problem.” He reached for the button and the portal flooded with green. He cried out as pain wracked him. Moving quickly, Sam quickly reached In for the form of her friend, her hand sinking into it. 

“Hold on, Danny!” 

As she slowly watched his body slip from her hand to the floor, the form she grasped seeming to suction through her point of contact, her vision going white. And then as suddenly as it began, it was over. Tucker stood by the master switch- having killed the power as soon as he could. “Danny, Sam, are you okay?!”

Sam shook on her feet. She felt a total unease as she looked down at the body _my body_ at her feet. There was a primal fear as she stared at the body of her best friend before her. She knew he was dead. So why did she hear his voice in her head?

_ Nonononononono! _

She did the only thing she could.

_ That can’t be true. _

Her boots echoed through the empty lab as she ran for the bathroom, slamming the door behind her, sobbing as she sank to the floor.

_ Sam, I’m right here. _

Was this what insanity was?

_ I’m not dead I’M NOT DEAD IMNOTDEADIMNOTDEAD _

“Sam, are you okay?” came the concerned voice of her other best friend from the other side. She couldn’t say. What could she say? That her dead _ notdead _ best friend was having a panic attack in her head? 

“Sam, Danny’s not moving and you touched him while the power was live, please say something,” Tucker continued, “I think I saw something in the portal before the power died… this is heavy.We gotta call the Fentons.”

She cried out in frustration, pain, loss as she stood, and her vision went white again. As she looked in the mirror- green eyes stared back at her from his face. Fingers ran through their white hair, his heart thumping in her chest. 

“S-sam?” they spoke, his voice no louder than a whisper, but on the outside now. “I’m scared.”

_ Me too. But… at least we’re not crazy. _

Despite himself, Danny chuckled.

“No, just the world.”

He finally took notice of his body. He was… definitely in something made from the same material as his hazmat. But much less conservatively cut. Tall gloves, no shoulders, no midriff. Black where it was white, white where it was black. Oh, and he was glowing.

A hand ran down their face.

_ This is real. _

He leaned into her touch. “Yeah, it is.”

The doorknob wiggled.

They froze. Their reflection blinked for a moment. They couldn’t face him like _ this _. They had to get away, 

_ Danny, calm down, we can— _

Her protests were silenced by the rush of wind against their cheeks as they sped upward, bracing only to find themselves passing through the walls, up the house, out into the deep night sky.

“Whoa.”

_ You can see the whole town from here. _

“Yeah… it’s so beautiful from up here. Almost enough to push the image of me dead on the floor out of my head.”

They shuddered.

_ We’ll figure it out, Danny. _

They flew, slowly out.

“So we’re stuck together and… I think I’m a ghost.”

_ You think? What gave it away, the glowing green eyes? The walking through walls, the disappearing, the flying? _

“Fair point. But it also explains my… body. God, it’s weird thinking about that.”

He sighed as they flew. “What _ are _we going to do?”

_ I don’t know. I just want to go home and… I don’t even know. Lay down and hope this is a nightmare. _

“...You might have a point. We can’t just tell my parents ‘your son’s a ghost inside of me, but he’s fine.’ Besides… who knows if they’d believe it was me in here”

They let out a sigh.

_ Can we just… not think about that for now? _

“Fine. Onward to your home it is then, Sam.”

They cut through the night air in the direction of Sam’s house.

They began to get closer to the ground, finding a discreet alley to land, taking some deep breaths as they prepared for his form to disappear and be replaced by Sam. Her turn to feel his hand run down her face. 

_ It’s okay. We’ll handle it. _

Sam continued toward her home. She wasn’t looking forward to what was waiting there- she’d snuck out to spend time with her friends to get out of shopping with Mom. And even together as they were, the familiar streets seemed cold. Lonely. She took a deep breath as she opened the door, slowly, trying to slink in…

“Samantha Smith Manson.”

Her mother had been waiting for this- settled nicely into a chair in the sitting room just inside the entry. Their teeth ground- Sam actually liked her middle name, but her mom never used it for anything but when she was going to tear into her.

“Where have you _ been _ ? I told you I had arranged a special afternoon for us and what do you do? You sneak off to spend time with those… those _ freak _ friends of yours, or that Fenton boy!”

Their fingers curled into a fist. Somehow her mother always knew just what to say, and today was no different.

“Well.” Sam spat, trying her damnedest to hold in the emotions that were bubbling inside of her all evening, and not succeeding very well, “_ you’ll _ be happy to know you won’t have to worry about that anymore… because _ Danny _ is _ dead, _ mom _ . _”

Her thin frame shook as her words hung in the air for a moment. Her mother’s face went from anger to shock, as she processed what Sam had just said, finally settling after a moment to compose herself. Pamela took a deep breath. “Sam… “

“What?” Her mom never, _ ever _ called her that. By the time Sam looked up, her mom was standing. Pamela’s arms were open and in a moment wrapped around her daughter. 

“I’m sorry. I know he meant a lot to you. Do you want to talk about it?”

Sam was taken completely off guard. And in that moment of weakness, she let herself let go for the first time since the accident itself, the tears coming hard and fast, “h-he was my best friend, Mom, and now he’s dead, and it’s my fault—“

Pamela’s hand gently rubbed down her back. “Shh, shh, slow down a bit there,” she spoke softly, “your fault?”

“He was trying to impress me,” she spoke between sobs, “his parents had this… gate, and he tried to turn it on, and… I tried to pull him clear, but…”

“Sam,” Pamela spoke gently but firmly, “He made the choice. And you said it yourself. You pulled him out, you put _ yourself _ at risk to try and save him. Danny might have been thinking of you, but his choice was his. Blaming yourself isn’t going to make him any less dead, and if he was your friend, he wouldn’t want you to. He’d want you to remember the good times.”

_ ...for once, your mom’s right about me. _

The ghost of a smile crossed Sam’s face through the tears.

“...Thanks, Mom, I… I needed that. I’m… gonna clean up, and lie down. I need some time alone.”

For once, that was all her mom needed. Pamela gave a small nod, holding her closer a moment before letting her go.

“I understand.”

Sam breathed a sigh of relief as she made her way through her room, tossing her shirt as she made her way into her bathroom. She turned on the water to warm it up, putting a calming track on her bluetooth speaker. A good shower, to clear her head and-- their body paused, flushing as their hands reached the clasps.

_ Oh. Oh man. _

Their eyes shut.

_ I'm. I'm gonna see._

“...I can hear you, you know?”

_ Not like I can stop thinking. _

She snorted. “You’re not gonna get to see if you keep getting us so nervous we can’t work my bra.”

They worked the hooks and let it drop. She coaxed him into opening their eyes. He did his best not to stare, and she couldn't ignore how that was making _her_ feel. 

“You doof,” she protested as she managed to get back to undressing. "You're gonna have to get used to it, you know."

_ I’m sorry. You’re just.... so pretty." _

There was that ghost of a smile again. “You think I’m pretty?”

_ ...You didn’t know? _

She flushed. 

“Okay, let’s. Just get in the shower. See where it goes.”  
_ ...Yeah, that sounds… nice. _

They took a step into the steam, feeling for perhaps the first moment comfortable in their own skin. It would be a very long shower, and they would leave it very satisfied, responding to a series of frantic texts from Tucker with ‘we’ll explain tomorrow’ before turning Sam’s phone off and collapsing onto her bed.


	2. Coexistence

Sam murmured as they woke up- noticing it was still dark. 5 am. They sighed. 

_ We’re not going to get back to sleep, are we? _

“No, we’re not,” Sam muttered, bleary eyed as she sat up in her bed. 

_ How are we going to handle this with our parents?  _ ** _Are_ ** _ we gonna handle this with our parents? _

“No. Not now. Not for a while. You… know how my relationship with my parents is  _ already _ .”

They winced.

  
“We keep this between us, and maybe Tucker. That’s it. Mom and Dad would have me  _ committed. _ ”

Their eyes went to the phone. Dare they turn it on?

With a deep breath, Sam picked up the phone, and powered it- greeted immediately by a stream of intensely concerned texts from Tucker.

  
‘Sam? Where are you? What happened? Are you okay? Please tell me if you’re not dead.’   
She gave a little smile as she looked at the phone, beginning to draft up a reply.    
  
‘Tucker- sorry I ran yesterday. Meet me this afternoon at the city park. I’ll explain everything, for both of us.”

She put down the phone, leaning forward on her knees, hugging herself. Their stomach grumbled, and Sam realized they hadn’t eaten since yesterday afternoon. She found herself briefly distracted by idle thoughts of eggs and bacon before questioning and realizing where those had come from.   
  


“...I’m not letting you put that in my body, Danny.”

_ Sam, come on. I’m gonna be stuck in here for as long as we’re around. _ _   
  
_

“Danny, I get it, but give me some time to think about it, okay?”

_ I know, I know. Not like I meant to anyway, just… _

“I know. Just like last night, you’re stuck in here and that means we both have to deal with each other’s little quirks and needs. We can get by like this, Danny, but we both need to learn to handle that, and live the way both of us can live with.” 

_ Right. You know, I’m glad if this had to happen it was with you. _

“...me too, Danny.”

They stayed the way they were in bed for a few minutes, closing their eyes and letting themselves just enjoy the together before standing up. They had a day ahead of them. They headed downstairs to eat- feeling considerably better after getting some food into their body.

_ You know, I never realized how confining pants were before, _ Danny thought idly, almost causing Sam to break out into a laugh mid-bite on their cereal. Somehow, she wasn’t sure if she wanted  _ more _ of those kinds of moments or less. 

_ And I thought you didn’t do dairy, either. _

I don’t unless it’s cruelty free, she thought, that’s why I don’t do that stuff when we’re out, Danny. 

He seemed to quiet a bit. 

No one was up yet, and Sam was thankful for it as she got up and began to head out the back to the yard so she could slip into Danny’s ghost form, taking off. For all that the situation had sobered them, there was something  _ freeing _ about what Danny could do in this form, the feeling of the wind in their hair, the city so small below.    
  


_ It’s all so amazing, Danny. _   
  


Danny chuckled. “Yeah, it really is. I get the feeling we’re gonna be using this a lot to decompress, Sam.”   
  


A bit fuller laugh started in their body,  _ Yeah, I don’t doubt that. _

They wondered idly what if anything else they could do. Yesterday they’d gone invisible, gone through a wall, flew. All basic stuff that ghosts could do. 

Their thoughts would be interrupted by a chill, followed by a green blur going past them.   
  


_ Is that… _

“...a ghost?” 

They watched the ghost go by, questioning what, if anything, they could really do about it. After a moment of thought, they hung a left- the direction it went- to chase down the green blobby ghost. It had only very vague suggestions of arms, angry red eyes, and a green toothy maw. 

“Hey, ugly!” Danny cried after them. The thing turned around, not necessarily understanding but instinctually turning toward the loud noise. It let out a confused noise, before rushing toward them. Well, the fight was on now. They took a swing as the thing approached, landing a blow but being somewhat thrown by the blobby ghost’s momentum. The loss of balance sent them spinning back a bit in the air, and the ghost came at them harder. Danny gritted their teeth as he raised his hand again to swat it away, only to find their hand was… glowing? It shot off a beam and-- apparently the little thing was a weak bugger. It seemed to be  _ vaporized _ by the blast.    
  


“Whoa.”   
  


_ Danny, did we just disintegrate that thing? _   
  


“I think we did.”

  
  
  


A few hours later...

Sam sat on the park bench, waiting. She gave a wave as Tucker approached.    
  


“Hey,” she called.   
  


“What  _ happened _ yesterday, Sam?”   
  


“...I’m sorry I bailed. It’s complicated, but I just couldn’t stick around,” she replied.   
  


“Forget  _ that _ you bailed,  _ how _ did you bail?” he asked incredulously, “That bathroom had no windows! We had to bust the door open! The Fentons and I thought maybe something happened to you til they checked in with your mom later.”   
  


“...That’s what we were gonna explain, yeah,” they began, “Uh, that portal zap  _ did _ do something to me. Us.”   
  


Tucker raised a brow. “Us?”   
  


“You might wanna take a seat, and keep the voice low, Tuck,” Sam replied, “Because, uh. What happened yesterday. Danny… didn’t exactly  _ die _ , per se. Our best guess is that when I tried to pull him out, I separated his body from his soul. And that soul is now in mine.”

“Right. Okay,” Tucker replied, taking it in a moment. “You know that sounds crazy, right?”   
  


“Why do you think I waited til we were in person to say it?” Sam replied, “Of  _ course _ I know that.”   
  


He gives a slightly frustrated noise. “...Given that I don’t have any other explanation for what happened, I guess I have to believe you.”

She chuckled. “Yeah, it’s a lot. I can show you real proof, but uh, not out here in public.”   
  


“So you’re both in there…?” Tucker asked.    
  


“Right. We’re.. we’re both in here. We can both do things,” they continue, “It’s kind of like two people trapped in a car. We can swap who’s in the driver seat but the navigator still has some say.”

“...so how are you gonna explain this to your parents?”

“Plan is ‘we don’t’, Tucker,” Sam replied firmly, “Danny’s parents would want to pry. Figure out what it is. They may even try to rip him out of us and that’s way too many ‘could we survive that’ questions to think about. And as for  _ my _ parents… mom was really something last night, but they still hate so much of what I am. What they’d do if I told or showed them any of this… I don’t want to imagine.”

Tucker gave a bit of a nod. “I can… get that, yeah. They’re really judgy people. But the Fentons lost their kid. I don’t think they’d take any chance at losing again.”   
  


“That’s not something I want to bet either of our lives on yet, Tuck,” they replied firmly. 

“Fine, fine, fair. Fair enough,” Tucker replied, holding his hands up. “Just saying, because having access to their stuff would probably make figuring it all out a  _ lot _ easier.”

“You’re not wrong,” they replied, thoughtfully, “And Danny apparently wasn’t the only thing that happened yesterday. We kind of fought a ghost this morning.”

“...Okay, that sounds like just about the coolest thing to come out of all this,” Tucker replied, a smallest hint of a smile crossing his face for the first time in this whole business, “How?”

“When Danny comes out, we have these ghost abilities. We went through the roof, we flew, and when we fought that ghost, we got mad and just, pow. Bright green glow goes straight to it and it’s gone. Hope it’s the last of them.”

“It sounds like  _ someone _ has gotten their call to adventure,” Tucker commented, perhaps a bit glibly but it was the most he could do to try and make sense of what had happened. “You said there was more if we could get alone. My parents are out of the house- they were at a marriage seminar this weekend. We have time and space if you wanna come with.”   
  


“You know what, that sounds great.” She stood. “Getting to be the kind of time of afternoon you actually see people around here anyways, and I’m not quite in the headspace to be around smiling happy people.”   
  


“I feel you there,” Tucker replied, putting a hand on her shoulder. “C’mon. Talking, junk food, hanging out, chill. We both deserve to take it slow after yesterday.”


End file.
